Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Wow, not only is it March already... but it is almost April. Life has become extremely busy for me and I have had almost no time to do anything, including post on the ol' bloggy. As more time becomes available, I am going to start posting some older projects that I haven't been able to post about.... and hopefully I will be able to work on a few projects in the interim.

First up is this Crazy Vertical Scarf with a FREE pattern!!! My favorite part of this project is there is no need to tuck in your ends because it has fringe!

Materials:
Size 15- 32" circular knitting needles. (You can use bigger and longer, I used what I had)
Stash Yarn. (If you don't have a crazy stash like I do, you can use 1 ball of Alp Oriental by Feza Yarns)
Crochet hook (if desired for adding fringe)

Pattern:
Cast on 150 sts. If using the Alp Oriental, Knit until you are at the end of the ball, leaving a tail long enough to bind off with. If you are using your scrap yarn (see below for tips) knit 2 rows with first color, leaving long tails at the beginning and end. This will make it so that you have tails on only one side of your scarf. Knit 2 rows of each color way until you reach desired width, bind off.

Finishing:
With the Alp Oriental, the pre-cut fringe is attached to the ball of yarn, so using a Larks Head knot, attach the fringe to each end, making sure that you are spacing them evenly apart. You will most likely have a length of working yarn left over after your scarf is finished. Cut that piece apart so that each piece is double the length of your fringe and attach those pieces as additional fringe.

If you were using Stash yarn, you will notice that one side of your scarf has fringe and the other doesn't. Cut pieces of each coordinating stash yarn double the length of the fringe and attach each to the "bare" end of your scarf to add fringe. When all the fringe is attached, trim to make them all even.

Stash Yarn Tips:
I used yarn that I had to make an overall look similar to the Alp Oriental yarn. I pulled balls of yarn from my stash that would look good together and match well enough. I pulled some furry yarns, sparkly yarns and fuzzy yarns too to add interest. Once I had them all pulled, I sat on the floor of my living room and separated them into groups of 2-4, depending on weight.

I wanted each group of yarn, when held together, to have about the same overall weight as all the other groupings.

When you knit each color group, hold a strand of each yarn together and treat them as one yarn while knitting. To save time, when I was done knitting with one color group, I immediately cut the pieces for the fringe that will be added when finished to the opposite end of the scarf.

Knitting Tip:

Make sure that you cast on and especially bind off loosely! I didn't pay attention when I was binding of the 1st time and the bind off ended up being really tight and the scarf would bend on one side like this:

I ended up taking out the bind off and re-doing it. The 2nd time when binding off, I made sure each stitch was double the size that it normally would be. Some of them ended up too big, but isn't that big of a deal because it now lays flat instead of bending.

Good Luck and feel free to contact me with any questions. Until next time, Happy Knitting!